Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Announcement: New JewishGen Website Design

JewishGen is pleased to announce the completion of the first phase of the redesign of the JewishGen website. JewishGen is the premier website for online Jewish genealogy, and has been an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage since 2003. The free, easy to use website features thousands of databases, research tools, and other resources to help those with Jewish ancestry research and find family members.

The current redesign will offer users an easier way to begin research into their Jewish roots and to connect with family members. This redesign will be implemented in several phases. The first phase, the redesign of the JewishGen homepage, is now complete and accessible at www.JewishGen.org.

The homepage was redesigned with the goal of easy access for new users and enhanced searchability and functionality for existing researchers. Some of the enhancements to the homepage include:

SIMPLICITY – New visitors to JewishGen can quickly learn about the mission of JewishGen, the primary features, and how to get started on their own family research.

EASY LOGIN – Registered users can login immediately using the Login to JewishGen feature on top of the page.

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS FEATURE – The homepage will be continually updated with important news and announcements, such as the addition of new databases, information, projects, search tools and more.

APPEARANCE AND FUNCTIONALITY – The homepage is visually appealing and easy to load for users with both high and low speed internet access.

Future phases will involve updating additional components of the website, which consists of over 40,000 webpages, and improving functionality for all levels of users. In addition, JewishGen continues to add new data on a continuous basis, with approximately one million items of data added each year.

JewishGen depends primarily on the labor and financial contributions of its volunteers. It is only with their help that JewishGen is able to assist the hundreds of thousands of family researchers throughout the world.

If you would like further information or you would like to participate in our growth and improvement, please email us by clicking here.